Having recently read about the deserts of China, a sight I have yet to fully incorporate into my imagination, I imagined what a nature spirit or demon might look like. It comes across more cartoonish than I hoped, but that has more to do with images of the strange creatures from Samurai Jack and a slew of illustrations from Pinterest that haunt my mind.
The only connection I purposely made to deserts are the lizard characteristics. It is done with soft pastels on heavily textured watercolour paper.
Dimensions: 9″ x 12″
Overview note on this series of spirit studies: During research on Hopi Kachina dolls I did for a major essay at school, I came face to face with more questions on appropriation than I was prepared to understand. The first challenge was writing with anything resembling respectful expertise on indigenous traditions from around the world and the second was dealing with the images they inspired me to make. I hold no claim to authenticity, nor any in-depth understanding of the significance of these images. In many cases, as is part of my art practice, I allowed myself to transform and recombine inspirations into something new-ish.
See more at Arts MPerron @ www.1-mario-perron.pixels.com